Review: Murder Game

Reviewed by Jen
 

Christine Feehan is going back to her Ghostwalker roots in her 7th book in the series, Murder Game. Our hero is Kadan Montague (or Kaden Bishop, as he introduced himself in Mind Game. Now, he says Bishop is just a nickname. And we need to ignore the fact that the spelling of his first name has changed over time. But I digress.) Kadan is Special Forces soldier who has been psychically and physically enhanced by evil genius scientist Dr Whitney. He is part of the first team of these soldiers, who call themselves Ghostwalkers that were featured in the first three books.

He has been tasked to find solve a string of murders, which appear to have been committed by fellow Ghostwalkers. So he seeks out a former serial killer profiler, Tansy. He realizes immediately that –1– she is one of the female Ghostwalkers enhanced by Whitney in her childhood; and –2– Whitney has chemically altered the two of them to be undeniably attracted to each other. Think turbo-pheromones.

Anyway, Tansy doesn’t want to help. The way her talent works is that she touches an object and can see into the souls of those who handled it before her. But handling that energy takes a serious toll, especially if the soul she encounters his evil or violent. The voices of the victims linger in her mind; at one point she even had a breakdown –and that’s why she quit helping the authorities. And why she doesn’t want to help Kadan. She is in no hurry to get away from him, though. He is an anchor, which helps calm the constant barrage of energy that is always flittering around her. She can even touch him without discomfort. And touch him she does.

Kadan doesn’t realize the real impact that tracking killers has on Tansy. Until he tricks her into touching an object from one of the murder scenes. Once he sees the toll it takes, he tries to release her from the case, but she decides the killers need to be stopped. Turns out, there is a game going on that pits two teams of Ghostwalkers against each other. They committing murders with specific targets to gain points for their team in a macabre competition. As the story progresses, Tansy works to uncover the members of the teams, and the elusive “puppet master” organizing the games.

The chemistry between Kadan and Tansy is great. But like many of Feehan’s alpha males, Kadan is a bit too much. He insists on taking charge of every situation and making all the decisions. And it irks me that he insists Tansy allow him to touch her whenever and however he wants. Despite that, their scenes are sexy and he clearly needs her like he’s never needed anyone.

I liked Kadan’s story better than the other stories featuring his group. But I prefered the SEAL stories. This one didn’t touch the intensity of the Norton books, despite a solid and interesting plot. 4 stars.

Murder Game

by Christine Feehan

Release Date: December 30, 2008

Publisher: Jove